Publication Policy

This page sets out our Publication Policy as agreed by the Council in 2014.

OPENNESS PRINCIPLES

The CLC is committed to making freely available as much information about its work as possible to assist:

the regulated community

the oversight regulator

our partners in regulatory activity and law enforcement

policy makers

consumers of legal services

Unless otherwise stated, information will be published on the CLC’s website. Where information is not published because it is not proportionate to do so, it will still be available on request.

This commitment covers all of the CLC’s work as a developer of policy in relation to legal services and an educator of lawyers as well as our purely regulatory work.

Some of our regulatory decisions are published on our website. We also make disclosures about the regulated community proactively and reactively to:

other regulators and to law enforcement agencies

comply with a Court or other order requiring production

an insurer, lender, client or other.

We make this commitment in the public and consumer interest and in line with the principles of good regulation.

As with all organisations there will be types of information that the CLC is not able to share for legal, commercial or regulatory reasons. The criteria for information remaining confidential to the staff and Council members and others working with the CLC are set out in the next section on exemptions.

EXEMPTIONS

Our approach to considering exemptions to our general commitment to openness takes account of general freedom of information practice, the public interest and the principles of good regulation (proportionality, accountability, consistency, transparency, targeting).

The following exemptions will identify whether particular categories or items of information should not be published by the CLC. The first three are absolute exemptions. The remainder are qualified exemptions in which case the grounds for the exemption will be tested against our commitment to openness.

Absolute Exemptions

Personal data – Within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998[1], other than as permitted by statute (e.g. the requirement at s.19 Administration of Justice Act 1985 for the CLC to keep a register of licensed conveyancers).

Confidential information – Information, the disclosure of which would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by the person who provided the information or any other person.

Prohibited disclosures – Information the disclosure of which is incompatible with any law or which would constitute or be punishable as contempt of court (e.g. ‘tipping off’ under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002).

Qualified Exemptions

The following exemptions are not absolute. They set out reasons why we might decide not to make information available. Before they are applied we will consider them against the public and consumer interest in disclosure, our regulatory responsibilities and our commitment to being as open as possible.

Legal professional privilege – Information which would be protected by privilege in legal proceedings

Trade secrets and commercial interests – Information the disclosure of which would or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the CLC, an organisation regulated by the CLC or any other person.

Future publication – Where publication of the information is planned and it is reasonable to withhold the information until the date of publication.

Investigations and proceedings – Information the CLC has collected and holds for the purpose of regulatory investigations and proceedings or any criminal or civil proceedings.

Regulatory and law enforcement – Information the disclosure of which would, or may, prejudice regulatory action to the taken by the CLC or law enforcement operations.

Policy in development – Information that has been collected and/or is held to support the development of policy, including records of discussion of that policy development, publication of which would inhibit the policy development process. Wherever possible such information will be published once the relevant policy decision has been made.

[1] Personal data means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified –

(a) from those data, or (b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.